Developing from the Ragtime piano style, Stride Piano is a jazz piano technique that involves playing, with the left hand, bass notes on beats one and three and chords on two and four with soaring right hand melodies in a virtuosic display of skill and dexterity, in a thick pounding fashion that plays both rhythm and harmony simultaneous, in a way that tries to be in ‘two places at once’ (Waller & Calabrese, 1997). A prolific Ragtime composer and performer, Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime” (Tanner, Megill & Gerow, 2015) laid the stylistic path that the self-appointed ‘Inventor of jazz’ Jelly Roll Morton would follow, transforming ragtime from its composed roots into stride, an improvisatory style of jazz piano that Fats Waller would further develop and launch into the publics conscience.…show more content… Stride relies on a strong left hand, and Willie Smith said that ‘the stronger the left hand, the richer the stride.’ (Waller & Calabrese, 1997). This concept is one that makes stride piano very difficult, as many pianists focus on their right hands, and relegating their left hands as their ‘off-hand’, but stride requires both hands to be equally strong and masterful.
Born into a musical family, Scott Joplin, Born 1868, was an African-American pianist and composer (Gammond, 1975). Named “King of Ragtime", Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, including famous pieces such as “The Entertainer” and “Maple Leaf Rag”. As a master of the Ragtime idiom his skills were unsurpassed and the strong left hand presence and fleeting right hand lines set a precedent for the coming of Stride piano. He passed away on April 1st, 1917, and this date is often considered the ‘Death of